On a busy weekend Alys and I popped up to Wales to see a couple of friends and for me to have a go at running in the annual Race The Train 14 mile race they hold there.
It was a bit of a giggle, being Wales it rained obviously but it stayed warm enough and I slogged through the mud to a "not all that bad" finish time of two hours and eighteen minutes. The train itself finished in one hour and forty eight minutes so there's a bit of training to do for next year but they sent out a few trains while we were running so there was a bit of banter between the runners and trains to keep you going.
Apart from the race, we also saw Fergus and Rick who are hard at work making a series of sculptures from copper wire and mesh. There was a element of concern amongst their friends that a self-imposed exile to Snowdonia would send them both a little bit strange, and it probably has to be honest. But they have produced these incredible and amazingly life-like bird sculptures so it's more than worth it.
The two of them have already had a piece commissioned and now in place at the Manchester Eye Hospital. There are pictures somewhere in the ether and I pinched this one from Fergus' facebook page to upload here. They have a blog and website on the way but being a busy pair of welders it's not all quite up and running just yet.
The deer really are brilliant and watching their development was very interesting, to get the animal's structure and stance correct took them a very long time to perfect and it involved a lot of research, books on anatomy and even a stuffed deer's head.
This crow was finished a few weeks ago but illustrates their attention to detail, the poor thing's been stripped right back after they discovered a better way of making the feathers look realistic so it's all being done again. It's hard to see on this picture but it's all getting put back on again, starting at the back the feathers are going along with all of the little downy feathers under the wings and above the legs.
Here we have their collection of Wrens made so far, they are just a fraction bigger than life size and utterly charming! They are going to be cleaned and polished up to finish them and will look incredible once done.
The branch is all created from copper wire as well and it's brilliant to see them as a set, they all have a slightly different pose and that gives them each a little bit of personality.
A bit closer up and you can see a little bit of the construction and work that goes into even these smaller birds.
All of these pictures were taken in Wales on the Sony Alpha 700 with the Sigma 24-70 EX DG lens. The two slightly more reddish birds are due to taking the photos using a copper sheet for a reflector, it looked great at the time after a few beers but didn't help the white balance one bit.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment